I just walked past a really nice piece of chalk art along Hickory Avenue north of 36th Street in Hampden. This was a nice visual footnote to our pilgrimage to Atomic Books where I picked up McSweeney's #11 (with DVD!) and the Vertigo's graphic novel Orbiter.

- mike lee - baltimore

It's great to see wireless access starting to creep into our Baltimore neighborhood. The Cosi Coffeeshop near us recently installed the Surf and Sip Network. From the access locator page on their site, it looks like Surf and Sip Network is available Cosi locations in DC, Baltimore, Philly, NYC, Chicago, and Boston. The pricing plans are OK, with daily weekly and annual pricing options. I tried out the $5.00 one-day deal and logged in without a hitch. I wonder how many students and faculty will buy into this service given how much coverage is already available on the JHU campus just across the street. I'm not going to be buying access here too often since I'm five minutes away from my home network, but today was a nice day to sit outside with my laptop.

- mike lee - baltimore

P.S. Bustagroove: your story is scaring me.

I'm sitting here surfing Hiptop Nation on my laptop while an Action Script in Photoshop on my desktop machine batch processes 871 digital photos of the freshman class of a local college. I love it when techonology does all the heavy lifting. The client years ago had an intern spend days manually correcting the images in Photoshop for print reproduction. Photoshop in automation mode (on a fairly slow machine) chews through the pile in about 45 minutes.

- mike lee - baltimore

At the historic Senator Theater today, we were enchanted by the story of a legendary race horse named Seabiscuit. The story was masterfully brought to screen from a bestselling novel and the particulars have been well promoted so I won't thumbtype them here. Just go see this uplifting movie if you have the chance.

- mike lee - baltimore

We saw Tomb Raider 2 this afternoon. I mostly remember Angelina's Don't-F-With-Me scowl framed by eyebrows that cut and those trademark pillowy lips (not to mention other pillowy things). I think there was some other stuff going on like baddies chasing the goodies through exotic locations around the world. There was a lot of fighting and shooting and finally the world was saved from mass destruction. This isn't the kind of movie you love or hate--you go to escape.

Tomorrow I redeem myself with Seabiscuit.

- mike lee - baltimore

Revisiting my mobile mosaic technique from last October's visit to the Smithsonian Arts & Industries Building, I just made this superwide composite of The Great Hall of The National Building Museum. The Great Hall is at the core of the museum, which is housed in the former United States Pension Bureau. Completed in 1887, the building contains "an innovative system of windows, ducts, and open archways ... designed to keep the building's Great Hall--approximately the size of a football field--well-ventilated and glimmering with natural light."

Building facts from the visitors' brochure:

• The interior of the National Building Museum is equally impressive. The Great Hall, 316 feet by 116 feet, is breathtaking. At its tallest point, it is approximately 15 stories high.
• Seventy-two Doric columns made of terra cotta surround the Great Hall on the ground floor. The second floor is encircled by 72 Ionic columns made from cast iron.
• The eight Corinthian columns centered in the Great Hall are among the tallest interior columns in the world. Made up of 70,000 bricks each and covered with painted plaster, the columns stand 75 feet high and are 8 feet in diameter. In 2000, the columns were remarbled to reflect more accurately the original pattern intended by General Meigs [the building's designer].
• Fifteen presidential inaugural balls, from Grover Cleveland's in 1885 to George W. Bush's in 2001, have been held in the Museum's Great Hall. The Presidential Seal located between two of the interior columns has been in place since 1901.

Sitting right by the fountain in the center of the hall, I feel free to think grand thoughts.

- mike lee - washington, d.c.

Wife and I rode the MARC commuter train from Baltimore to D.C. (spared you the commuter shots as I did those last October), and we parted ways at her office (pix 1 & 2).

I just walked over to The National Building Museum (pix 3 & 4) to grab some coffee from their High Noon Cafe and take in the exhibits. When I trade places with my wife while she goes on maternity leave this winter, I'm going to seriously enjoy visiting the NBM's huge 15 story Great Hall to contemplate the day.

Alas, a signal scan turns up no WiFi.

- mike lee - washington d.c.

At the moment I'm caught in my car waiting out a torrential downpour because I don't have an umbrella. But that's OK. I get to explore the how the rain catches the street lights to form interesting patterns in the windows.


- mike lee - baltimore

Joi Ito has photos of 1imc from his film camera scanned and posted on his TypePad gallery. There are a couple nice photos of MikePop giving his presentationhere and here. Also Wireless Watch Japan is offering a streaming video of conference highlights.

- mike lee - baltimore

Our dog reminds us that every waking moment should be about play.


- mike lee - baltimore